CPMulator is a program to emulate the CP/M operating system under x86 DOS. The program was developed in 1984 by Keystone Software Development. The company was owned and operated by Jay Sprenkle.[1]
The NEC V20 processor released that year was guaranteed to be hardware compatible with the Intel 8088. After reviewing the instruction timing of the math operations and instruction addressing hardware it was determined it could slightly speed up existing 8088 based IBM PC machines.[2] Keystone software started advertising "PC Speedup Kits" in PCWeek magazine. The CPU was socketed in IBM PC's so it could easily be replaced. In practice most programs received a 5% speed increase but those that were math intensive were much improved. One customer reported his monte carlo simulation of a nuclear reactor was so much faster that he "double checked the results because he couldn't believe it was finished."
CPMulator was developed after the release of the V20. The processor was also able to emulate the Intel 8080 instruction set in hardware.[2] This opened the possibility of running older code on the new IBM machines. CPMulator was designed to modify CP/M binaries to make them run as if native 8088 DOS programs. The code to put the CPU in emulation mode was prefixed to each CP/M executable. Any calls to the CP/M operating system were intercepted and translated to DOS operating system calls. The program would leave 8080 emulation mode, make the operating system call, translate the results to CP/M standards and returned to emulation mode and continue the original program.
The product went out of production after AT class machines became prevalent and NEC produced no V series pin for pin compatible version of 80286 processor.
Referencesedit
^Stevens, Kenneth (2008). The Emulation User's Guide. Lulu.com. pp. 62–63. ISBN978-1-43575373-0. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
^ abDavis, Randy (December 1985 – January 1986). Written at Greenville, Texas, USA. (PDF). Micro Cornucopia. No. 27. Bend, Oregon, USA. pp. 4–7. ISSN 0747-587X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
May 08, 2024
cpmulator, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, july, 2018, lear. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources CPMulator news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2018 Learn how and when to remove this message CPMulator is a program to emulate the CP M operating system under x86 DOS The program was developed in 1984 by Keystone Software Development The company was owned and operated by Jay Sprenkle 1 CPMulatorDeveloper s Keystone Software DevelopmentInitial release1984 40 years ago 1984 Operating systemDOSPlatformx86TypeEmulatorLicenseProprietary software The NEC V20 processor released that year was guaranteed to be hardware compatible with the Intel 8088 After reviewing the instruction timing of the math operations and instruction addressing hardware it was determined it could slightly speed up existing 8088 based IBM PC machines 2 Keystone software started advertising PC Speedup Kits in PCWeek magazine The CPU was socketed in IBM PC s so it could easily be replaced In practice most programs received a 5 speed increase but those that were math intensive were much improved One customer reported his monte carlo simulation of a nuclear reactor was so much faster that he double checked the results because he couldn t believe it was finished CPMulator was developed after the release of the V20 The processor was also able to emulate the Intel 8080 instruction set in hardware 2 This opened the possibility of running older code on the new IBM machines CPMulator was designed to modify CP M binaries to make them run as if native 8088 DOS programs The code to put the CPU in emulation mode was prefixed to each CP M executable Any calls to the CP M operating system were intercepted and translated to DOS operating system calls The program would leave 8080 emulation mode make the operating system call translate the results to CP M standards and returned to emulation mode and continue the original program The product went out of production after AT class machines became prevalent and NEC produced no V series pin for pin compatible version of 80286 processor References edit Stevens Kenneth 2008 The Emulation User s Guide Lulu com pp 62 63 ISBN 978 1 43575373 0 Retrieved 2020 01 25 a b Davis Randy December 1985 January 1986 Written at Greenville Texas USA The New NEC Microprocessors 8080 8086 Or 8088 PDF Micro Cornucopia No 27 Bend Oregon USA pp 4 7 ISSN 0747 587X Archived from the original PDF on 2020 02 11 Retrieved 2020 02 11 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title CPMulator amp oldid 1124640464, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
